Hi Voomo, I want to comment on the Dirty Uniform guys. Expectations about stolen base performance have changed a lot since I was young, and even more since the Deadball Era. There is a general consensus now that to be adding value a player’s SB success rate should be in the 67-75% range or higher. Although the balance of value is different depending on the out/base situation, anything lower than that range overall is likely subtracting rather than adding value. This was not the way SBs were understood in the past, where major attention was on the value of success,… Read more »

Voomo: Your lists have the virtue of bringing to mind, I think, many if not all of the issues that have informed COG arguments in the past, both pro and con, but mostly con—perhaps obviously, since these players, other than the Negro League stars, have all been considered in their time and found wanting. The sluggers list, for instance, is top-heavy with suspects from the steroid era, guys who, one either suspects or knows, couldn’t have put up nearly such gaudy numbers without chemical assistance, and who don’t have the statistical credibility of a Bonds or a Clemens as to… Read more »

nsb, I’d be very surprised if there were not a general sense here that Gibson was CoG caliber — there’s a guy who has not the slightest need of a catcher’s bonus, but has one nevertheless. I don’t mean to oppose Gibson’s redemption/ultimate election. I do want to advocate for laying groundwork before we cross a line to new ground I think we’re unprepared to find our way on. The case for Paige, which I supported, was that he was a unicorn: there was no one else in his class (significant and dispositive evidence of excellence in an MLB setting,… Read more »

Aaron Judge has put up two highly unusual box score lines in consecutive games. His 6-4-4-8 in the Yankees 20-9 win over the Brewers is one of six such games, while his 1-4-1-2 game the next day is just the eighth since 1901. The Yankees’ 13 home runs over their last two games ties the record for most by a team when scoring 32+ runs over two games. Whose record did they tie? The Yankees, of course, in 1939 and 2020. Those 13 homers are one fewer than the record posted by the 1999 Reds for any two consecutive games.… Read more »

Doug,
Thanks for the info – Suarez has GOTTA be the only guy with a sub – .200 batting average (~ .165) going into his big game. Whiten also the only switch-hitter?

The name on this list that always puzzled me when I was young was Pat Seerey. The list was short then (five names: I remember feeling strange adding Colavito) and the names all prominent ones except for Seerey. I knew nothing about him and I discovered after reading Doug’s post today that about seven decades later I knew nothing more–just that he hit four HR in a game (one in extra innings) and had a brief career. Brief for a reason: in his four seasons as a regular he led the league in strikeouts every single year and has no… Read more »

Correcting myself, Suarez is the second player with 4 HR in a losing cause, following Bob Horner. Makes some sense that Suarez, Horner and Gehrig all homered 3 times off the starting pitcher, as all three games were close, with the Gehrig game only turning lopsided after a two out 9th inning grannie by Tony Lazzeri (the Yankees’ 7 HR were then a single game record, tying the mark set by the A’s in this 1921 game).